


Revelations and right decisions

by BunnyJess



Series: SladeRobin Week 2020 [10]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Good brother Jason, Implied Smut, Jealous Dick Grayson, M/M, Multi, One-Sided Attraction, Secret Relationship, Unresolved Sexual Tension, except to the outlaws, good sister Steph, hints of past Slade/Jason, it was friends with benefits, jealous tim drake, protective outlaws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:42:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27288100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyJess/pseuds/BunnyJess
Summary: Day six of Sladin week – Trapped together, family intervention, or Earth-3/Evil BatsThe Bats believe Steph has made a grievous error is leaving them and Gotham behind to join the Outlaws, not realising that she didn’t join them to push the Bats into accepting her but because they considered her family from the off. The Outlaws aren’t some band of anti-heroes slaughtering their way around the universe. They’re a family, a family that took her in and love her unconditionally. Building her up to a point where she finally allowed a more romantic kind of love into her heart…even if it is with her brother’s ex and their ex-colleague’s long time crush.
Relationships: Apollo/Midnighter/Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown/Slade Wilson
Series: SladeRobin Week 2020 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985017
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49
Collections: SladeRobin Week 2020





	Revelations and right decisions

With the sun beating down on the island Steph knew she’d made the right decision. Working with the Bats was what she’d always dreamed of doing, except then it happened and it was working for the Bats with only the information they deemed necessary. Here was different. She’d found a home and a family. Best of all she had a team who worked with her. 

She also had something so much better. 

Looking up she couldn’t help the grin that appeared. Not when her idiot of a boyfriend was wrestling with her idiot of a brother. Sand flicking up around them as they acted like children and not the fifty-five and twenty-five she knew they were. 

A hand as warm as the sun landed on her shoulder. She didn’t look up, she didn’t need to. No-one here crept up on her for nefarious reasons, unless they were in the middle of a prank war. Love didn’t exist in a prank war. 

“Utter children aren’t they.” There was a smile as blinding as her own in Andrew’s voice. The man looking at one of his two partners out on the beach. “You can see why we always told Jason it wouldn’t be cheating if they fell into bed together again.”

That bit of news didn’t shock Steph. How could it, not when Jason’s close relationship with Slade was the whole reason she had a man who didn’t deceive her. His past with Slade clear to all who looked at them, the lingering touches and comments they’d make. Before they’d been able to become more official Jason had met Midnighter and Apollo on an Outlaws night out to a LGBTQA+ club and Slade had fallen into bed with Talia. 

They’d remained close, close enough Jason’s lovers had agreed they would be in an open relationship so if anything happened with Slade again it wouldn’t be cheating. Missions away, just the two of them. Trips to the island when Slade wanted to visit Grant and Rose. They’d never ended up together again. Although they’d been spinning towards it six months ago. Their tension building in pressure until it was liable to explode. 

That’s when Steph had come onto the scene. She’d needed out of Gotham and out of the Bats. Ditching Spoiler to become Cluemaster. Taking up the name that’d caused her to end up on the island feeling like a way to bring good to the former moniker. 

Jason had taken her in, as had the Outlaws, without a second glance or moment of indecision. Reassuring that Steph knew she’d always have a home with them. The strays of the hero community; the failures, rejects, and formerly-dead all taking her in and accepting her in a way even Cass hadn’t managed. 

During one length of time between missions they’d been relaxing on the sand when Slade had darted in and tackled Jason. Her first time meeting Deathstroke the Terminator, this ultimate big bad that had managed to consistently escape Batman, was as he’d attempted to pin her ridiculous brother to the sand. Fight dragging on for almost fifteen minutes until Kori and Artemis has called them both children and an embarrassment. 

She hadn’t meant to fall for their mercenary. She really hadn’t. There’s just been something…soft about him. It was in the way he looked at his kids and in the way he relaxed around her family. The way he always kept himself ready for action disappearing when he knew he was in a place that wouldn’t judge him. It also helped that the three dogs the Outlaws kept, apparently two coming from the man himself, were continually giving him puppy-dog eyes for anything and everything and watching this notorious killer give in every time. 

The fight eventually broke up when Jason got distracted by Midnighter appearing at Andrew’s side. Steph didn’t need to know what her brother was thinking as he looked over his two partners yet she did as she often found herself on the receiving end of the same stare from Slade. He’d clearly picked it up from the man. Telegraphing his interest towards them both with just a lowering of his lids and a sly smirk. 

Slade had pulled away, coming over to her. “It’s not a true win if he’s distracted.” He grumbled, sounding like a petulant child as her brother disappeared with M and Andrew. 

“Oh don’t pout,” she reached up and cupped his cheek, thumb rubbing across his lower lip. “Besides, it gives us the beach to ourselves.” Steph twisted to swing her legs off the lounger and found her ankles caught in Slade’s grip. 

The older man stopping the movement so her legs were held open and he was positioned between them. His shark-like grin appearing as his eyes darkened. “That it does baby.” He leaned down and kissed her. His lips and tongue pulling her in. Dragging her into his orbit as she let him consume her. Pushing her back so he was hovering over her. Her legs around his waist and his lips dipping down to scratch teeth down her neck. 

They were about to go further, the hard line of his cock not hidden at all by his swim shorts, when the all-hands alarm sounded across the island. The pair jumping apart and racing back to the ship-turned-home. Beaten to the armoury by the other Outlaws already grabbing gear regardless of their more casual dress. 

They fell into a defensive approach pattern. Spread around the landing pad that was currently clear thanks to Roy taking their break to work on their smaller jets with M. A black jet they’d all recognise anywhere landing vertically on the pad. 

She heard Jason swearing through the comm and echoed the sentiment. The Bats turning up never brought good news. Their visits happening once every couple of months in an attempt to bring Jason to ‘help’Arkham and get Steph back into their fold. Unable, or just unwilling, to understand that they were happier where they were. 

Bruce disembarked first, closely followed by Dick and the rest. Apparently it was the twice annual full family attempt. The various colours mixed with black of the suits they wore looking ridiculous in the tropical climate, not to mention boiling hot. 

“Stephanie, Jason, we just want to talk.” Bruce called out. Roy’s shielding masking them from his cowl tech making it impossible to mark their locations. 

As one the Outlaws surrounded them. Joined by M and Slade by land and Andrew, Kori, and Biz covering air support. The appearance of the three extra metas clearly a surprise given the way each Bat grew a little unsettled. 

“What are you lot doing here?” Dick asked the extra people. Unable to hide the frustration bleeding into his tone. 

Slade looped an arm around Steph’s shoulders, the hold loose enough for them to break and fight if needed while M did the same with Jason. 

“Can’t a couple of guys visit the man and woman they love?” M asked sarcastically. His brain already running scenarios of every outcome. Glancing up and Andrew and over to Slade. 

“I’m sorry, do you really expect us to believe you and Andrew would be with Jay and, what, that Slade and Steph are a thing? Don’t make me laugh.” Dick sounded so sure of himself it actually made Steph a little sad. Everyone who’d ever worked with Dick knew how the three men made him feel, especially Slade and M, how sure he always thought he’d end up with one of them. 

“That’s exactly what he’s saying Dick.” Jason spat back. That familiar fire that had drawn each of them together as a family now sounding downright deadly as he glared at his former brother. “You saying we’re not good enough because we’re not you?” Steph heard the the gasp Kori and Andrew let out as their mics picked them up. Jason breaking an unspoken rule of anyone who’d once called Dick a friend or ally. 

“Enough.” Bruce barked out. Steph couldn’t help noticing how the other Bats straightened at his tone. Reminded of a time when the same would have been said for her. Her time with the Outlaws breaking her of any loyalty she felt towards the man who’d left her to die. 

She stopped listening when he began his same rhetoric as usual. Watching the others closely from her spot against Slade’s side. Her teammates, her family, allowing her a level of comfort in the potential for a fight she’d never experienced with the Bats. She knew they had her back, just as she had theirs. Their bond running deeper than a promise made by an eight-year-old who’d forgone therapy for punching people. 

As she looked each of them over, noting the upgraded to suits and marking them against the extensive files she and Jason kept updated on everyone in the ‘hero’ community, she felt eyes on her. Looking up she saw the way Tim was watching her with narrowed eyes. Mask squinted and mouth pursed. Clearly unhappy with her choice of partner. He wouldn’t understand, he never would. His betrayal running too deep for her to ever truly forgive. 

She listened back in when Jason marched forwards. Arms and hands outstretched as he did so. Her brother always too willing to throw himself into harms way if it meant getting his team out alive and free. 

“Or what? You going to try dragging me to Arkham again? Your Golden Boy already tried that, didn’t you Dickie. All that did was put me in Joker’s hands all over again.” She glanced today M and watched his hands curl into fists as Andrew landed beside him leaving Kori and Biz on air support. Hot palm landing on Jason’s lower back as he grounded one of the men he loved. Reminders of the asylum always holding the potential to trigger panic attacks that only made his chronic nerve pain worse. 

“Heh, that’s not why you’re really here. Is it you pointy-eared bastard. You need them for a mission you’re not willing to send your actual kids on.” Steph was always envious of the way Andrew and M could control any situation. Firm and unwavering to the very core.   
Bruce shifted at M’s words. A subtle thing the man picked up on, designed to be better than Batman, better than anyone in a fight, saw the way he shifted having hit the nail on the head. Walfish grin plastered across his face, the man looking every bit like a predator toying with his prey. 

“They aren’t going.” He stood firm, ready to take them all on. Bruce would go for Andrew, the almost sun god knowing this thanks to the sub-vocal ticks relayed through the comms in using morse code. Just as the rest knew who’d go where. M couldn’t wait, Dick stuck between attacking him, Jason, or Steph and leaving Slade to Cassandra. His indecision the reason every outcome pointed towards the Outlaws winning. 

“He’s right you know, we aren’t going with you. Are we Bro?” Steph shot the question over to Jason, making sure she spoke loud enough for them all to hear. 

“Never. We ain’t Bats anymore, some would argue we’ve never been Bats in this life.” Jason was always precise with his words. Never overly talkative during a fight. Saving them for when they’d cut deepest. 

Bruce stumbled where he stood, looking between the blonde woman and his son. Unable to believe his second and forth Robins would think that way. Not with how they’d taken them both back in after their deaths. Tried to help them return to their moral code and word as a unit. Jason’s interference preventing them from succeeding with Stephanie. 

Slade took the decision away from the Bats. Turning him and Steph away. Keeping his voice loud enough for them all to hear. “Come on Babe, we were in the middle of something weren’t we.” His tone leaving no room for misinterpretation. Tim and Dick both shouting at them to turn back. Both unable to believe they were losing who they’d thought their futures lay with. 

She knew what would happen next, knowing her brother too well. Jason snickered and pressed against M, hand resting over his heart. “Can you guys leave? They weren’t the only ones interrupted.” It really was too much fun. The groans from the other Outlaws and M’s whispered filth making Steph crack up as her and Slade retired to her quarters. Relying on their family to stop any fight. 

The woman slid her hand down to Slade’s ass and grabbed a handful. She’d hate to be interrupted again, she had work to do.


End file.
